Rapper Nas invests in cricket protein bars company

08 March 2016

Newsdesk

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Rapper Nas has invested in a protein bug bar company.

Bosses at Exo have recently launched snacks containing cricket flour in U.S. supermarket retailers Whole Foods and Wegman's, and they are hoping to expand the company with other products including shakes and protein powers.

"In the long term, we envision cricket powder being competitive with soy, and whey, and any other protein source," Exo co-founder Greg Sewitz told Bloomberg. "That starts with introducing cricket protein to a consumer base with no direct experience with it and a lot of preconceived ideas that were negative."

The executives have just completed a $4 million (GBP2.8 million) funding campaign and investors include the One Mic star.

Nas has made several investments in different companies in recent years, including music mastering service LANDR and ticket search engine company SeatGeek.com and he also launched venture capital firm QueensBridge Venture Partners to help expand companies he is interested in working with.

"People, that is the absolute number one," he told CNBC.com via email earlier this year (16). "I love to bet on great people that inspire me and make me think or see things differently."

"I've always wanted to be surrounded by the smartest people in the world, and didn't want to limit that to just music," he continued. "I want to meet the people who are innovating in all different fields, and investing lets me do that.

"I meet the people that are changing the game across all different industries, and I get to be there first at the ground level. It's helped me to progress tremendously in my business."